[eccr] EU Commission opens consultation on EU government e-services

Title: EU Commission opens consultation on EU government e-services

Commission opens consultation on EU government e-services

In short:
The Commission has launched an open consultation on the Interchange of Data between Administrations (IDA) initiative on the provision of pan-EU government e-services. 
  

Background:
The EU Member States are currently putting in place government e-services for enterprises and citizens, designed to replace paper-based methods of working with public administration with channels for electronic working over the Internet. eGovernment services are also one of the ten priorities of the eEurope programme. 

Issues:
The purpose of the consultation is to establish the needs and priorities for Europe's enterprises and citizens to have access to pan-EU government e-services in cross-border situations. The Commission states that "looking at government e-services today, it would appear that there are at least four types of government e-service that have a cross-border dimension": 

*    Cross-border users: government-services that should be open to users in other Member States. 
*    Information exchange between Europe's public administrations: government e-services that need access to information held by public administrations in other Member States; 
*    Life events for citizens and enterprises at the EU level: requirement to share or obtain access to information resulting from the development by the Member States of government e-services based on 'life events' (for citizens) and 'business episodes' (for enterprises). 
*    European-level services: e-services provided by European institutions, agencies or other international public sector organisations, and e-services for compliance with regulations for which grounds for national deviation do not exist. 

The consultation is open until 17 June 2002 and input should be sent to: (ida-central /at/ cec.eu.int).